Tag Archives: mobile

Podcasting, broadcasting, advertising

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Excellent interview at AdAge.com with Leo Laporte. Leo is the man behind TWiT (This Week in Technology), one of the most popular podcasts (monthly reach of 500,000). Which is why the podcast has attracted Dell, T-Mobile and Visa as advertisers. According to the AdAge piece, Laporte’s podcast mini-empire could rake in as much as $2 million dollars in a year, but he says he’s more concerned about how to not ruin the medium with advertising. Excerpts:

“…all podcasters agree that podcasting has more value than radio or almost everything and we deserve a high cost per thousands [of listeners] and are going to create an environment that’s worth it for advertisers. We don’t want to jam it for advertisers. And the audience will let you know — they’re not passive. It’s more of a conversation than a monologue. … We need to hold the line and really deliver quality advertising. It’s going to be hard at first, [podcasters will have to be] turning down advertisers, running fewer ads than you’d like, not take in as much money as you’d like. But if we can focus on delivering something of value we can make both advertisers and listeners happy.”

When asked if he thinks podcasts from mainstream media companies will exercise enough restraint in the advertising:

“I hope they screw it up. I see them as using podcasts to drive to their bread and butter. We’re narrowcasters and they’re broadcasters and there’s a big difference. “Ask a Ninja” wants to be “Seinfeld” but people like me and most I know are narrowcasters. We want to super-serve an audience and develop a relationship. [Broadcasters] see themselves as delivering a lot of people to advertisers and inefficiently. But those days are drying up. There will always be the Tides and Coca-Colas who can afford that but most companies in this modern world need to be efficient and they can be by using these new technologies.”

I have no doubt MSM companies (like ours) can produce quality podcasts. And, given our built-in promotional opportunities, we should be able to attract listeners. Will we “screw it up” when it comes to the advertising model? Don’t know. To be continued.

Is your “stuff” good enough to pay for?

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“Alltel Wireless customers will be able to access XM Satellite Radio programming via their cell phones for $7.99 per month. The deal links the fifth-largest mobile service provider in the United States with the world’s largest satellite radio company. Like its competitors, Alltel is facing the imminent prospect of market saturation, so the company is seeking high-value content to gain additional revenue from its customer base.”

Seems to me you’d have to be a big fan of XM to pay an extra eight bucks a month to listen on your cell phone. And wouldn’t that be hell on the battery? But the more interesting question (for me) is: Do you have the kind of content that someone would be willing to pay for?

As businesses figure out that they can –if they’re clever enough– take their message directly to their customers, they’ll stop paying to have their messages jammed down people’s throats. We are approaching a time when the only reason people will listen to an (unwanted) commercial message is because they can’t figure out a way to avoid doing so. If you want to talk to your customers, you better start listening to them.

If you don’t know how to do that, you’re in trouble with a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool.

Help me score and I’ll buy your lawn mower

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I maintain a website called Missouri Death Row. No official connection to the Missouri Department of Corrections but it has become the de facto “official” website for capital punishment in Missouri. I struggle to keep the site current and was doing some research on one of the inmates currently sentenced to death:

“On December 9, 2002, Earl Forrest, who had been drinking, and his girlfriend, Angelia Gamblin, drove to Harriett Smith’s home. Forrest and Smith apparently had a falling out over a dishonored agreement with Smith to purchase a lawn mower and a mobile home for Forrest in exchange for Forrest introducing Smith to a source for methamphetamine. Forrest demanded that Smith fulfill her part of the bargain. During the ensuing melee, Forrest shot Michael Wells, a visitor at the Smith residence, in the face killing him. He also killed Smith, shooting her a total of six times.

Forrest removed a lockbox from Smith’s home containing approximately $25,000 worth of methamphetamine and returned to his home with Gamblin, where a shootout with the police ensued. The local sheriff was wounded and a deputy was killed. Forrest sustained a bullet wound to his face. Gamblin was shot twice, once in her shoulder and once in her back. Forrest finally surrendered and was charged with three counts of first-degree murder. He was found guilty on all three counts.”

Let me see if I have this right: I’ll introduce you to a source for meth…if you’ll buy my lawn mower and mobile home. How would two people ever come to that agreement?

“Come on, hook a sister up, will ya?”
“Well, I know this guy, but…”
“Look, help me score and I’ll buy your lawn mower AND your mobile home.”

Let’s skip the comments on this one. One of the arresting officers was killed and another wounded. One more sad, white trash story.

TiVo Guru Guide

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The guys at TiVo have rounded up a bunch of critics, editors and experts to pick as many as 10 of the best programs in their interest areas for each week and update their lists at least once a month. They’re calling it the TiVo Guru Guide. TiVo users who share their interests can elect to have the shows recorded and have a selection ready whenever they sit down. Program pickers will come from Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, Entertainment Weekly, Billboard, H2O (Hip-Hop on Demand),CNet.com and Automobile Magazine. The Guru Guide will be available on the roughly 1.5 million TiVo units owned by direct subscribers to TiVo service. It won’t be available to the 2.9 million who get TiVo via DirecTV. So it’s a cool idea I can’t take advantage of.

I might actually use this (if I could) because I like/trust TiVo. I’d like it even more if I could rate the pickers. For example, they could offer movie picks from 5 different “experts.” Over time, based on their picks, I might narrow that down to just one or two whose opinions most closely match my own. [via Buzz Machine]

The Multimedia Reporter

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The News-Press in Florida has dedicated two reporters called mobile journalists, or mojos who are equipped with digital cameras, MP3 recorders and wireless laptops. Their job is to find hyper-local stories that don’t get into the newspaper and to train members of the community to file directly to the Web site. [Blogspotting]

Does that sound like a fun job, or what? I wonder what kind of stories we might get if we accepted audio reports from people throughout the states we serve? (That sound you heard was the people in our newsrooms, screaming.) I can’t beleive someone isn’t already doing this. Think Flickr but “news” audio instead of images. Upload MP3 files to a big database, tagging each one (politics, St. Louis, sports, etc). Sure, you’d get a lot of crap but people would sort that out with some kind of “trust” rating system. The better stuff would float to the top…the crap would sink to the bottom.

As a statewide radio network, we sometimes struggle to get news from areas where we have no affiliate. Would it make sense for us to be recruiting and training “citizen reporters?” We have about 60 radio station affiliates in each of the states we serve. And not all of them have full-time reporters. What if we had digital stringers in 600 cities and towns throughout the state? What if we weren’t limited to 4 minute newscasts and 10 second sound bites?

Local radio stations could building this kind of news gathering effort. I remember when newspapers featured “community highlight” columns written by people in the small towns they served. It’s probably still being done.

Okay. I’m tired of thinking about this.

The difference between TV stations and newspapers

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Terry Heaton on the Washington Post’s matter-of-fact streaming of the Alito confirmation hearing: “There is now officially no difference — online at least — between TV stations (and networks) and newspapers.” Is this equally true for radio stations and networks? If so, what might that mean?

Let’s say, for example, that a local newspaper in Anytown, Iowa, covers the very same news events as the local radio station. (Just for fun, let’s say they cover more events because they have more news people.) And they stick a little MP3 recorder in front of the newsmaker and immediately post a couple of paragraphs –including the sound file– to the newspaper website. Along with an image.

The remaining ‘defining difference’ between the newspaper and the local radio station is the method of delivering that news ‘content’ to the good people of Anytown (and the world). It’s still easier to turn on the radio and listen to the story (assuming I happened to tune in at the right moment) than to get in front of a computer to look/listen. Unless the ‘computer’ happens to be my Treo 700 mobile phone.

Thinking about all of this made me wonder about the definition of “radio station”: n: station for the production and transmission of radio broadcasts.

That’s just not gonna work anymore. We need a better definition, fast. I have not worked at a radio station for almost 22 years so I’m not qualified to come up with one. But it can no longer be about hardware (transmitters and towers). It has to be about people.

I think I’d be looking for smart, interesting (sometimes funny) people who live, work and play in the community your station serves; good writers; informed, well-read people who know how to do an interesting interview; people who know how to record/edit good, quality audio (video?).

If you stopped recruiting and hiring those people because it was no longer “cost-effective,” I suggest you find some, quick-like-a-bunny. But will they want to come work at the radio station if they can better use their talents and creativity on the local “newsaper” website?

Randy and Warren (and maybe Nate) are a lot closer to the world of terrestrial radio than I, so maybe they can help me answer a question I’ve been wondering about lately. How hard/easy is it in 2006 to find and recruit people to work at the local radio station? Where do the prospective hires come from? What are they looking for? What kind of skills do they have? Just click the comments link below.

Ford squeezes office into truck

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Ford Motor unveiled a mobile office designed for the new F-Series truck that includes a touch-screen computer, printer, wireless broadband access and Global Positioning System. Ford, which introduced its mobile office at last week’s Specialty Equipment Market Association show in Las Vegas, is targeting general contractors but the first thing I thought of was farmers and ranchers. [C|net]

When we first started repurposing content from our farm network for the web, everyone said, “Farmers don’t have access to the Internet.” When we started streaming our audio reports, they pointed out, “Farmers are on very slow dial-ups and can’t access rich media.”

I’m no visionary. I just pull my head out of my ass a couple of times a day and take a look around. If your pick-up is your office, this is gonna make sense to a lot of farmers.

Radio: Media comfort food

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A couple of new services from Sprint allows “some subscribers to stream live music to the phone in a radio-type format without having to buy a new phone or have lots of storage.”

I don’t have a mobile phone and wouldn’t buy one to stream live music (I didn’t think I’d buy and iPod either) but that’s not the point of this post. When I read this story (in the Seattle Times) I thought, “Where in the hell are the stories about cool things happening in radio?” I realize it is a “mature technology” but, come on… there’s got to be something going on out in radio land. Help me out here.

Dave, you work in/for/around radio. What’s the buzz? What has radio juices flowing? Bob, Morris… tell me something to get me excited. Send me a link and I’ll read/post it.

Then again, maybe radio is like your mom’s cooking. You take it for granted. No, it’s not hot or new or sexy…but it’s always there for you. A funnel cloud was sited near (?) Jefferson City tonight and I turned on my little transistor radio and listened to some pretty good coverage. Not very high tech but reliable and…comforting.

Music Choice, Sprint launching music service

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“Music Choice and Sprint are launching a music service that allows mobile phone users to view short videoclips and listen to radio-like programming on their handsets. For $5.99 per month, users can listen to a range of genres and formats, including R&B/hip-hop, pop, country and rock. Earlier this year, the company announced Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services, which delivers streaming audio and video content from NBC, CNN, ABC News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, Discovery, E Entertainment, and others.” (Reuters/MSNBC.com)